


Little Brother

by RobinPlaysTrumpet15



Series: Those Eight Months [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Kingdom Hearts II, Pre-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Riku (Kingdom Hearts) Has Issues, riku has a younger brother, riku needs to sleep better, sora's a good friend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 13:46:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17101730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RobinPlaysTrumpet15/pseuds/RobinPlaysTrumpet15
Summary: Riku's younger brother isn't so sure this is actually his big brother...Set in that undetermined length of time between the end of KH2 and DDD.





	Little Brother

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! So this idea was possibly inspired by some other story i read, but only loosely, and I don't remember the story. Mikey is a character my brother and I came up with the other night specifically for this... AU type thing. Anyway, I hope you like this story!
> 
> Also, if you think of anything as you read this that you would like me to tag, please let me know and I will do so. Thanks!

Mikey.

He forgot about… Mikey.

How the absolute fuck could he forget about Mikey?!

His little brother!

Mikey with his intense, teal blue eyes, just barely over three feet tall, short silver hair and blinding smile. His dimples in his cheeks, his tiny white baby teeth, his favorite purple t-shirt.

How could Riku not have thought about him at all?

*

Kairi was looking at him with an almost worried expression. He knew she knew. She probably guessed. About how he hadn’t remembered about Mikey. Guessed that between everything he’d put himself through and forced himself to do in the past year, he’d forgotten to think about his little brother. And she had guessed how awful he felt about it now.

The islands were beautiful. They always had been, but somehow Riku had forgotten that too. Or perhaps he’d just forgotten to look. He hadn’t paid much attention to the beauty of their home world in quite some time… and he hadn’t missed it until it was gone. Not until he was sitting on some other world, land locked, friendless, without anyone who had truly cared about him.

But as much as those thoughts made him want to sit here in the sand forever… their families were waiting. Not far away. Just on the other side of the water, on the main island. There was no way they could know their children were home, but they were still waiting.

And the King was still here, ready to step in and explain for them where they couldn’t.

So they had to go.

Sora reached a hand down to him, a silly sweet smile gracing his features. How he could smile like that after everything was beyond Riku, but he accepted the help up and let his best friend pull him to his feet.

*

They went to Riku’s house first. It was closest to the docks.

Sora accompanied Riku and Mickey up to the door, standing nearly pressed into the older teen’s side as Riku held out a shaking fist and knocked as confidently as he could.

Inside were the sounds of a dog, likely Shellie, barking at the sound of a visitor. Then came the yelling of a child, calling for the dog to calm down. Then the sound of… Riku paled. That was his mother’s voice.

Oh god… he couldn’t do this…

But then the door was swinging open, and there she was. Now shorter than Riku instead of level with him, a familiar smile falling away from her face as her eyes landed on her oldest.

Time slowed down.

She searched him. Took in his long hair, his teal blue eyes hiding behind his bangs, his muscular frame, and the new clothes. Tears welled up in her eyes at the guarded expression, the hesitant, wobbly smile, the clenched fists, and the curled in posture that didn’t match the fifteen year old she lost.

And finally, _finally_ , she spoke.

“Riku?”

And her voice was shaking, and the wetness in her eyes threatened to spill and make a mess of what little make up she wore. Her hands left their position clenched against her chest to reach out for him slowly, like he might actually disappear at any second. As if she had imagined this moment a thousand times over and wasn’t sure this was reality or just another day dream.

“Mom,” he muttered. He wouldn’t let her hear. He couldn’t. He was strong.

And then the spell was broken and time sped up to a breakneck pace. The shorter woman gasped and all but threw herself at her son, catching him up in a tight embrace that threatened to crush the breath out of the teenager. She was crying, sobbing, saying his name over and over and over like a mantra, breathing it reverently like a prayer.

Like someone might come and take her son away from her again.

And Riku was hugging her back, just as tightly, his eyes squeezed shut against the stinging he felt behind them.

*

Eventually, she had let him go and turned her eyes just to his left, finding a familiar face and warm blue eyes staring lovingly back at her. And this boy… this one had just found his way back into her memory and she wondered how she’d forgotten him at all. The little boy only a year younger than her son, Riku’s best friend, loud and bouncy and sweet. Her second son, she used to call him.

Sora.

She’d laughed and cried a little more, moving away from Riku and hugging the brunette now her own height. She could see Kairi standing out by the gate, next to a duck and a dog, two people she didn’t recognize.

Riku had grabbed her attention once again, introducing her to the mouse on his right. King Mickey.

She hadn’t been aware there was a king, but the three of them promised to explain everything.

She’d led them inside, leaving them in the living room and going into the kitchen to grab a few glasses of water, taking the time to dry her eyes on the edges of a hand towel.

*

Riku turned in slow circles, looking around the familiar and yet unfamiliar house. The living room looked mostly the same, pictures of him still sitting on the mantle and hanging on the walls, next to pictures of a smaller boy. One that was a near carbon copy of Riku himself.

And when he’d turned around nearly full circle, he saw him. He was small, but not as small as he had been last, hiding around the corner to the hallway, a firm hand on Shellie’s collar. He was peeking out, one teal blue eye looking around, and the edge of a flat line mouth just barely visible.

Riku stepped around the couch, dropping to his knees on the hardwood floor. He almost opened his arms in an invitation for a hug, but thought better of it last second. His hands stayed in his lap.

“Hey, Mikey,” he greeted softly.

For a second, the younger boy hid further behind the corner, then came out. His eyebrows were drawn together and his eyes screamed that he was angry.

Had he always looked like that? Riku thought Mikey had been a little more like Sora…

“Mikey?” Riku tried again. “It’s me… Riku.”

Mikey shook his head, tightening his hand on Shellie’s collar as she tried to move away from the boy and sniff out this new-not-new person.

“Aren’t Riku…” the boy muttered angrily under his breath.

Shock. “What?”

“You aren’t Big Brother…” Deep teal blue eyes shifted over Riku with a striking sort of expression that seemed a little off on a four year old. “Big Brother isn’t that big…”

Riku laughed lightly out of pure shock. “I grew, Mikey. You grew too, didn’t you?”

Mikey seemed to think about it for a moment, his expression softening, then hardening all over again. “Big Brother doesn’t talk like that.”

Riku cocked his head to the side on impulse. “Like what?”

“Soft.”

*

It was only the beginning.

Riku spent that night in his own bedroom. It had only been a year, but a year was a long time. The room seemed smaller, but not in a confining sort of way like it had before. But it definitely seemed… foolish now. The room was clean, probably thanks to his mom, but none of the clothes fit him anymore. The plain bedsheets and blanket seemed like a mistake now. The patterned curtains of childhood shoved away in his closet like they had offended him somehow.

He’d been so foolish when he was younger. He wanted those curtains up now, so he dug them out and replaced them on the dusty curtain rod. He wished for the polka dotted sheets his mom had gotten him once after he’d ogled them in the store, liking the bright pops of color against a white background. But he wasn’t even sure they still had them, so he didn’t worry about it too much. But he wished he hadn’t tried so hard to grow up when he still had so much time.

And speaking of growing up…

Riku stood and tiptoed from his bedroom and across the hall in his socked feet. He was still in his jeans, and his black tank top, but that’s what happens when you have no other clothes. He may be bigger now, but his dad’s clothes wouldn’t fit still.

Across the hall was a door identical to his own with a piece of drawing paper taped to it. It said Mikey in big bubble letters, colored with purple and orange crayon. In one corner was a yellow sun and grass along the bottom edge. On top of the grass was a little stick figure in a purple shirt, holding hands with a bigger stick figure in a yellow shirt and blue pants.

Riku’s heart ached.

He sighed to himself, willing himself not to think about the things Mikey kept accusing him of throughout the golden-gilded evening before and after he’d gone to Sora’s to meet up with the brunette’s own parents. It was the middle of the night now, and he’d rather not dwell on those things at the moment. His parents were asleep in their bedroom, and Mikey had been sent to bed hours ago.

Surely he could just peek in… just to check on him…

Riku grasped the brass doorknob, twisting it gently and pushing the door open slightly.

The room was much the same as he’d last seen it, set up for a small child. Not a whole lot changed between three and four for Mikey, Riku could see. Toys were scattered around the room, piled into boxes and crates and on shelves or even just on the floor. Some were new that Riku didn’t recognize, but others were from many years ago, before Mikey had even been born. Crayon and marker drawings hung on the walls, a mobile and a solar system hanging from the ceiling. The curtains swaying in the night breeze from the open window were reminiscent of a sunset, fading from purple to red to orange to yellow. Shellie was asleep on the plush rug settled on the floor next to the bed.

Mikey lay asleep in his bed, one arm thrown up over his head on his pillow, silver hair splayed out every which way. He had a blanket that was kicked to the end of the bed, but he was covered in a familiar looking flat sheet that was much too big to fit on his toddler bed. It was a little faded, still white with multi colored polka dots.

Riku smiled to himself softly. The room was a little cool, smelling of ozone from outside. It was going to rain. He wondered to himself whether or not he should go in and close the window.

“Riku?”

He didn’t jump or startle like he might have once. He just casually turned his head to his right, spotting his mother, wrapped up in her plush fleece robe. It wasn’t quite cool enough to warrant the heavier garment, but she had always run a bit colder than the rest of them.

“What are you doing up, sweetie?” the woman asked, coming closer and leaning in to also take a look at her youngest.

Riku shrugged, stepping away from the doorway and closing the door once again.

“I don’t sleep well, I suppose…” he admitted gently. It wasn’t much to be alarmed over, and he wasn’t keen on the idea of lying to his mother about something so trivial.

She looked worried for a second, before she gave him a sad sort of smile, hugging him gently.

She let him go and led him downstairs, turning on the floor lamp next to the couch. They settled on it next to each other, his mother in the corner, and him right on her left.

“Has Mikey started school yet?” he asked. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure what time of year it was, though it seemed cooler than summer time and a little more rainy.

His mother smiled. “No, not yet. Though he will be in September.”

Riku nodded to himself.

They were quiet, one of his mother’s hands coming up and clasping one of his own, rubbing her thumb gently across his knuckles.

“Has Mikey ever been to the island?”

She went a little stiff, but relaxed quickly with a little effort. Riku waited for her to speak, wondering if he had touched a nerve somehow.

“Well, most of the kids don’t go to the island anymore, sweetheart…” his mother said slowly. “Once the two of you disappeared… there were search parties… No one could find you three. Kairi showed up one day, claiming she didn’t know where she’d been. We didn’t know what to believe.”

Riku turned his gaze away to the window.

“It’s not the island, Mom…”

The woman shifted in her seat. “We know that, darling. I know that. But… well… your father’s gotten busy at work and you know me and boats… There just… hasn’t been time to take him…”

Riku didn’t say anything. He could guess why his father was busy at work. He’d run away from the real issue and chose to avoid it altogether by throwing himself into paperwork and emails and business calls at his desk job that he’d claimed to dislike when Riku was little. He’d said he’d rather spend time with Riku, instead of at work.

“He asks to go sometimes, you know…” his mother whispered.

Riku glanced at her.

“What if I take him?”

*

“No!” Mikey yelled over his plate of cut up french toast. “I wanna go with Riku!”

Their mother smiled tightly, a despairing sadness deep in her green eyes.

“That is Riku, sweetie,” she tried explaining once again. “He’s just been away and looks kinda different.”

The little boy scoffed at her. “He doesn’t just look diff’rent! He is diff’rent!”

Riku sat passively at the other end of the table. He was picking at his breakfast, knowing that he should eat, and that he had been excited to eat this morning. It’s been a long time since he was able to have a nice meal, especially his mother’s cooking. (In all fairness, she wasn’t the best cook out there, but she was good at the stuff she did make.) Her french toast was pretty good.

He wanted to tell himself not to take his brother’s words to heart. That he was young, and couldn’t possibly understand all of the literal hell Riku had gone through in the past year. He wouldn’t understand falling to the darkness and hurting his friends and becoming a completely different person. All of it would just fly straight over his head. So it wasn’t like it was Mikey’s fault.

“Mikey-”

“Not going! Wanna find the real Riku!” Mikey yelled.

Then their mother snapped. “Michael. Your brother wants to do something fun with you. He’s been gone a long time, and I think you can handle spending a day with him. Besides, what’s wrong with this Riku anyway?”

Riku was glad for his long hair, since his silvery bangs hid the look he just made involuntarily. He didn’t want to force his brother to spend time with him. If it was too soon, then it was too soon. Nothing to do about that.

“Mom,” Riku said, his voice low and quiet, placating. “It’s fine if he doesn’t want to. Just let it go.”

She gave him a pained look. “Riku-”

“Not Riku!”

“It’s okay. I’ll go with Sora or Kairi, or we’ll hang out at one of their houses. It’s not a big de-”

“Sora?” Mikey interjected.

Riku looked back at Mikey. His mouth and chin were covered in powdered sugar and maple syrup, a small bite of french toast stabbed on the prongs of his fork, halfway to his mouth. A brief flash of memory of Sora looking like that crossed his mind.

“Yeah, Sora.”

Mikey dropped the fork. “I wanna play with Sora!”

Riku’s heart dropped further. “Well, Sora and I are probably going to the island, but since you don’t want to…”

“I wanna go! I wanna go with Sora!” Mikey cried enthusiastically.

“Michael, Sora isn’t the only one going,” their father tried to chastise. It didn’t work.

“Okay. You can come,” Riku agreed. “But you have to stop calling me Not Riku. Okay?”

Mikey stuck his french toast in his mouth, chewing and thinking about what Riku had proposed. Then he swallowed with a definitive nod.

“Okay.”

*

Mikey went with Sora in his boat, and Riku rowed over to the island alone. He’d expected that, but it still hurt a bit.

Not that Riku didn’t deserve this…

He watched as Sora pulled his boat close to the dock, tying them off securely before hoisting Mikey up onto the wooden planks. The four year old took off running before Sora even made it out of the boat. Riku followed behind slower.

Sora turned back to his friend, a bright smile there on his face. Judging from the pallor of his skin and the tiredness in his limbs, Riku would guess he hadn’t slept well either. The brunette fell back and into step with Riku, sticking his hands in the pockets of his black shorts. He wasn’t wearing the extra red pouches Riku’d grown used to seeing on him, but it made sense. How much did he honestly need to carry to the play island anyway.

Mikey was off ahead of them, already kicking off his sneakers and rushing to play in the shallows of the water. Riku assumed he was fine to do this. He’d played with Sora like that at Mikey’s age and their mother hadn’t specified anything he couldn’t do, so… Riku probably didn’t have to watch him too closely.

“Sora!” Mikey yelled, the water up to his knees and soaking the ends of his shorts. Oh well. This was why he was in swim trunks.

“Coming, Mickey!” Sora called back.

“Mickey?” Riku asked, catching Sora’s mistake.

Sora flinched with an assumed smile. “Oops. Sorry Mikey!”

Riku rolled his eyes, shoving his hands into his own pockets. “Long night?”

Sora huffed with a nod. “I’m sure you’re familiar…”

Riku nodded too, watching Mikey toss handfuls of sea water up into the air, letting it rain down on his head. “Yeah…”

*

Eventually, Sora was coaxed into helping Mikey build a sand castle, and while they did, Sora told Mikey stories of all the castles he’d been in since last year.

Riku sat further away where the sand was dry. He thought to himself that it might not stay that way for long, glancing up at the cloudy sky. It had been threatening to rain since early morning, and he was beginning to wonder if they shouldn’t just head home. But then again, there was still shelter and places to play here in the rain. But if it thundered… they’d be heading home right quick.

Mikey played with Sora like no time had passed at all.

Riku tried not to dwell on that. Sora was taller… Sora’s voice was deeper… He acted different too. Why did it matter for Mikey that the Riku that came back was not the Riku that left, but the Sora that came back was just as good as the Sora who didn’t? What about the old Riku was better than this one? He was a better person now, right? He wasn’t shoving Mikey away for being younger, he wasn’t picking on Sora just because he could, he also wasn’t ripping the island apart with the darkness, so that was a plus if nothing else was. Why did Mikey want the old him back? What about fifteen year old Riku was better than sixteen year old Riku?

Mikey yelled something and launched himself at Sora, narrowly avoiding knocking over their castle, and pushing Sora down into the wet sand. They were close enough to the water that when the next gentle wave came in, Sora was laying in an inch of water.

He was going to have sand in his hair…

Sora won the little battle easily, scrambling to his feet and lifting Mikey into the air, carrying him around as if flying like an airplane.

Riku stood up and found himself sulking off to the other side of the island. Sora had Mikey.

Sora could handle it.

*

Sora paused, setting Mikey back down on the sand despite the child’s protests.

“Sora!” Mikey complained with a pout.

But Sora didn’t look. He just watched Riku walk off by himself, disappearing up the steps in the shack and through the door to the other side of the island. Where they’d built their raft.

Riku…

“Sora!”

His attention snapped back to the kid tugging at his shorts. Sora smirked down at him playfully, dropping to his knees and pretending to go back to working on the castle. Mikey joined him.

After a moment, Sora made his move.

“You know, Mikey,” he started lightly, “I think your brother’s feeling a little sad…”

Mikey didn’t look at him. “How do you know?”

Sora shrugged. “Well, do you see him over there?”

Mikey looked, pretending that he wasn’t. When he didn’t find Riku, he looked properly, glancing around the beach and the trees.

“He’s not here,” he said.

The corners of Sora’s mouth curled up in a sad, private smile. “You’re right…”

“You know where he is?”

“He probably went to be alone on the island,” Sora guessed.

Mikey’s expression turned dark. “He’s not Riku. He’s not my brother.”

Sora took a steadying breath. That had to hurt something awful for Riku to hear.

“And why do you think that?” Sora questioned easily. He didn’t look up, just continued smoothing out one of the towers of the castle.

There were a few seconds of silence before the boy spoke again. “Because he’s not the same.”

Sora hummed. “I see.” He shaped the top of the tower into a point, making it the tallest one and hoping it wouldn’t fall down. “Well… I’m different. Does that mean I’m not Sora?”

“You’re a good different…”

Sora waited to see if Mikey would continue, but he didn’t. “But Riku isn’t a good different?” he prompted.

Mikey’s hands clenched suddenly, fisting in the sand at his knees, still careful not to mess up their castle. Sora could see him biting his lip out of frustration, eyebrows drawing together in a frown.

“Mikey?”

“I don’t know!” Mikey yelled, getting to his feet. “He’s not mean! He’s not supposed to be that big! He’s not supposed to be quiet! He’s not supposed to want to spend time with me!”

Sora went ahead and stopped his progress with the sand. He sat back on his heels, sand covered hands resting on his knees. He searched Mikey, watching his frown increase, and his fists hang stiffly at his sides.

“Is that bad?”

The boy hesitated then cried out, “I don’t know!”

Sora sighed. “Mikey, I want to tell you something.”

“What?” the boy demanded angrily.

“Your big brother is very strong. Do you know why?”

Reluctantly, Mikey shook his silver head.

“Because,” Sora sighed happily, “he changed.”

Mikey just glared at him in a way that screamed that he didn’t understand.

“Riku’s left behind a part of himself that made him so angry all the time. It made him pick on me and it made him ignore you. It made him kinda loud and annoying. But Riku did some stuff. Some stuff that hurt me, and him, and Riku had to deal with that.”

“You got hurt?” Mikey’s hands unclenched, his frown lifting slightly.

Sora nodded reverently. “We both were really hurt. Riku had to make it right.”

“He apologized?”

Another nod. “Yes, he did. And he learned from his mistakes. He’s better now.”

Mikey’s frown shifted into something else. Something sad. “And… that’s why he’s different?”

Sora nodded. “Yeah. Because he’s strong, and because he knows that he messed up, and he’s trying to make it all better.”

He paused, waiting for Mikey to say something. He didn’t. But that was okay. Sora could work with this.

“But he can’t make it better… if you don’t let him.”

Mikey looked up at Sora with big teal blue eyes, bright and deep like his older brother’s.

“Okay?”

“Okay.”

*

Riku let his head fall back against the cobblestone retaining wall. He liked this space. It was shady and only got sunlight in the evening when the sun hung low in the sky and cast long dark shadows across the sand. But it was going to rain soon, if the darkening clouds were anything to go by, and honestly Riku felt the weather was completely fitting for the situation.

His situation anyway.

He wasn’t jealous of Sora. He really wasn’t. But he wasn’t loving Mikey’s easy acceptance of Sora’s differences when Riku himself was accused of being a completely different person.

And… okay, maybe Mikey was onto something with that line of thought, but that didn’t mean… it didn’t mean Riku wasn’t still his brother.

Two sets of footsteps echoed through the stone pathway above him. A couple of small, high grunts and hard thumps of weight on the ground, then quick little footsteps running down the slope and circling around to Riku’s spot leaned against the wall.

Riku kept his eyes closed.

“Riku?”

He was going to keep his eyes closed, anyway. He hadn’t actually expected it to be Mikey. In his head, all he’d seen was Sora, chasing after him at the age of four. But that wouldn’t make any sense. Riku really needed some sleep…

But Riku opened his eyes, peering over at his brother through his silver hair, mirrored back on a small child.

“Yes, Mikey?” Riku asked good naturedly. Sora probably had to do something and made Mikey come to Riku. So he’d still have someone to watch over him.

“Sora… Sora said…”

Here it comes.

“Sora said you’re strong. You changed because you wanted to say sorry for some stuff you did. And that’s why you aren’t mean or angry or-” Mikey stuttered out, his hands fiddling and fingers twisting together.

But Riku couldn’t believe his ears. Sora had… said that? He almost wanted to be angry with Sora. Mikey was four! He wouldn’t understand the stuff Riku did to get put in this situation-

But he wasn’t angry. If Mikey had listened… Riku had wanted to explain it too…

“And do you understand what that means?”

Mikey nodded. “Like… like when I pull Sara’s hair and I feel bad… so I say sorry and kiss her head… to make her feel better.”

Riku supposed that was close enough. If you could equate giving up everything you are to the darkness and hurting your best friends so much that one of them got their whole memory taken apart and put back together again just to go and save the worlds for a second time while trying to help on the sidelines, willing to never go home or see your friends ever again, to pulling your friend’s hair, then sure. And that wasn’t even everything Riku caused, but sure. Like pulling your friend’s hair…

Riku heaved a heavy sigh. “Yeah… like that…”

Mikey’s lip quivered.

“I’m sorry, Riku…” he muttered, head down and face hidden. But Riku was sure he knew about the tears slowly beginning to stream down the boy’s cheeks. “I’m- I’m sorry I said you aren’t my brother.”

Riku did open his arms for a hug then. Mikey fell into him easily, hands clenching into the white fabric of Riku’s vest. Riku wrapped the four year old up in his arms, one hand on the back of Mikey’s head, fingers gently carding through silver locks.

“It’s alright…” Riku muttered to him, full conviction in his voice. Deep breath. “Big Brother’s here. I’ve gotchya.”

“‘M sorry!” His voice was muffled and wet, but Riku remembered the sound of his brother crying into a shirt.

“I know,” he replied softly. “You’re forgiven.”

Mikey sniffled, pulling away slightly and looking up at Riku with pitiful eyes. “Did I hurt your heart?”

Riku gave him a tiny smile. “Only a little… but it was an accident, so it’s okay.”

“I’m gonna make it better!”

Then Mikey bent down again and planted a child like smooch on Riku’s vest, not quite where one’s heart actually resided, but definitely where a child would think it was. Warmth flooded Riku’s chest. Mikey smiled at Riku with a huge, baby toothed grin, eyelashes wet against his cheeks and face flushed from crying.

“Better?” Mikey asked brightly.

Riku huffed out a chuckle, pulling his brother back in for another hug.

“Yeah, Mikey… All better.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, I hope you liked it! There will be other little snippets of life and stuff that happens with Mikey in other stories that will be put into a series with this one. If you have any ideas or prompts, please let me know and I will see what I can do! Thanks again, and please let me know what you thought!


End file.
